Thursday, October 08, 2009

Interval

Stay tuned for Whitby and New Hamburg! And I am still interested in thoughts on Toronto...

Meanwhile life zooms along - October is a big birthday month in our household and after only one day (sigh) of rest, we plunged into our schedule of classes, visits, meetings, and serious Dungeons and Dragons playtime. I eagerly await the day when Finn can travel safely by subway by himself to the latter. He is close, but not quite yet.

I want to take a moment to invite any and all to join me on Sunday, November 1st at Wave Hill in the Bronx for a natural dyeing demonstration/workshop. I will be there from 1 - 3 p.m. in front of the Glyndor Gallery (weather permitting - indoors, if not) with my dye pots and all sorts of witchy goodness. Boil and bubble! After talking with the curator and art education person, we decided to make it less formal than an official workshop, so I will be there, doing my thing, and anyone can drop by and participate as much or as little as you want. I will have written materials as well, so there will be plenty of information to share.

This event is all in lead-up to my being an artist-in-residence at Wave Hill this winter. I will be set up in the Glyndor Gallery's sunroom (the gallery is closed during winter months) working on a project that is a kind of test of ecologies. With the assistance of their gardening staff, I am collecting plant materials to make dyes with and dyeing local fleece (well, probably not from the Bronx, but as close as I can get), then spinning it into yarn. I will set the yarn out, along with a simple hat pattern, for Wave Hill patrons to take at no charge except with the promise to make a hat with it and return it to the gallery. The hats will be displayed at Wave Hill House in the spring. Everyone who knits one will get a number and, at the end, will be able to take home a hat assigned to that number (not their own). If you make more than one, the extras will be donated to a suitable cause in the Bronx.

It is all kind of a test of trust - our relationship with the ecology of the Hudson River Valley in the harvesting of the plants and making dyes, in raising sheep for fleece and in the institution itself and its audience.

Everyone also is invited to come and hang out and knit and/or spin with me two days/week in the winter, so we will have lots of opportunity to talk about trust and relationships (and knitting, dyeing and spinning). I will post more about that later.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

oh - it sounds like a perfect project. xxx

LICraftgal said...

hmmm that sounds like fun. I think I may be able to stop in to hang out and see what's going on.

Geri said...

Oh, Phew! You ARE going to blog about us in Whitby. I thought you had forgotten about us.

Glad things are going well.

Happy Thanksgiving!